Ron Owens is a Baltimore native and Federal Hill resident who does most of his work in Washington, D.C. — not by choice, but because his minority-owned marketing firm rarely finds a Maryland-based prime contractor will to collaborate on projects.

Four years ago, before becoming certified minority business in Maryland, Baltimore-based GreiBo Media collected about 60 percent of its billings from this state's agencies. Now, the certified minority firm – meaning that at least 51 percent of its owners are minorities – earns less than 20 percent of its revenues from the state, said Shelonda Stokes, one of the firm's partners.

Comparatively speaking, Robert Wallace’s company has been fortunate: Prime contractors have not dropped the Bith Group as a subcontractor on state projects. Instead, the primes have changed at the last minute the amount of work – and thus, income – allotted for the Columbia-based technology consulting firm.

“They call it prime contractor amnesia,” Wallace said. And it’s one of many flaws that recently have been discovered in Maryland’s Minority Business Enterprise, or MBE, contracting program, which has a goal of awarding 25 percent of state procurements to minority-owned firms.

During the past 18 months a legislative audit and state-appointed task force have shown – among other things – that Maryland’s MBE program lacks oversight, its leaders lack authority and that several state agencies inflated MBE participation and contract awards by about $185 million.

With a growing chorus or minority business owners calling for changes, state lawmakers passed and Gov. Robert Ehrlich signed in April five pieces of legislation aimed at reforming the state’s MBE program – one of the most cussed and discussed of all state programs.

Critics – some of whom were part of the 17-member task force chaired by Lt. Gov. Michael Steele that produced about 50 recommendations for improving the MBE program – say the latest reforms did not go far enough. Proponents of the new laws say this package of legislation will keep Maryland at the forefront of minority-business participation efforts and boost the state’s overall economy.

“The reforms create the environment that make it possible for companies like mine to help where they can, to help the economy grow, to help the government solve problems and build solutions,” said Wallace, whose company does about 80 percent of its work with the federal, state and local governments.

*article taken from the Baltimore Business Journal, written by Scott Graham